This paper estimates family spillovers in high school major choice in Sweden, where admission to oversubscribed majors is determined based on GPA. Using a regression discontinuity design, we find large sibling and intergenerational spillovers that depend on the sex mix of a dyad. Same-sex siblings copy one another, while younger brothers recoil from an older sister's choices. Fathers and mothers influence sons but not their daughters, except when a mother majors in the male-dominated program of engineering. Back-of-the-envelope calculations reveal that these within-family spillovers have sizable implications for the sex composition of majors.

We study how high school majors affect adult earnings using a regression discontinuity design. In Sweden students are admitted to majors in tenth grade based on their preference rankings and ninth grade GPA. We find engineering, natural science, and business majors yield higher earnings than social science and humanities, with major-specific returns also varying based on next-best alter-natives. There is either a zero or a negative return to completing an academic program for students with a second-best nonacademic major. Most of the differences in adult earnings can be attributed to differences in occupation, and to a lesser extent, college major. I21, I26, J24,

Labor markets in advanced economies have undergone substantial change in recentdecades due to globalization, technological improvements, and organizational changes. Due tothese developments, oral and written language skills have become increasingly important evenin less skilled jobs. Immigrants – who often have limited skills in the host country languageupon arrival – are likely to be particularly affected by the increase in language requirements.Despite this increase in literacy requirements, little is known about how immigrants’ languageproficiency is rewarded in the labor market. However, estimating the causal effect ofimmigrants’ language skills on hiring is challenging due to potential biases caused by omittedvariables, reverse causality, and measurement error.To address identification problems, we conduct a large-scale field experiment, where wesend thousands of fictitious resumes to employers with a job opening. With the help of aprofessional linguist, we manipulate the cover letters by introducing common second-languagefeatures, which makes the resumes reflect variation in the language skills of real-worldmigrants. Our findings show that better language proficiency in the cover letter has a strongpositive effect on the callback rate for a job interview: moving from the lowest level of languageproficiency to a level similar to natives almost doubles the callback rate. Consistent with therecent development that language proficiency is also important for many low- and mediumskilledjobs, the effect of better language skills does not vary across the vastly different typesof occupations we study. Finally, the results from employer surveys suggest that it is improvedlanguage skills per se that is the dominant explanation behind the language proficiency effect,rather than language skills acting as a proxy for other unobserved abilities or characteristics.

This paper studies how public attitudes towards reduced immigration, the signature policy of the far right Sweden Democrats, respond once the party increases their political representation at the local level. To identify causal effects, we use panel data from 290 municipal election districts and compare otherwise similar elections where the Sweden Democrats either barely win or lose an additional seat. We estimate that a one seat increase for this far-right, anti-immigration party decreases negative attitudes towards immigration by 1.8 or 4.1 percentage points (depending on which national survey we use), contrary to the party's policy position. Consistent with these attitudinal changes, we find suggestive evidence the Sweden Democrats lose the incumbency advantage experienced by other small parties in Sweden. Exploring possible mechanisms, we find evidence for higher politician turnover and a rise in negative newspaper coverage. These findings demonstrate that political representation can cause an attitudinal backlash as a fringe party and their ideas are placed under closer scrutiny.

Far-right and far-left parties by definition occupy the fringes of politics, with policy proposals outside the mainstream. This paper asks how public attitudes about such policies respond once an extreme party increases their political representation at the local level. We study attitudes towards the signature policies of two radical populist parties in Sweden, one from the right and one from the left, using panel data from 290 municipal election districts. To identify causal effects, we take advantage of large nonlinearities in the function which assigns council seats, comparing otherwise similar elections where a party either barely wins or loses an additional seat. We estimate that a one seat increase for the far-right, anti-immigration party decreases negative attitudes towards immigration by 4.1 percentage points, in opposition to the party’s policy position. Likewise, when a far-left, anti-capitalist party politician gets elected, support for a six hour workday falls by 2.7 percentage points. Mirroring these attitudinal changes, the far-right and far-left parties have no incumbency advantage in the next election. Exploring possible mechanisms, we find evidence that when the anti-immigrant party wins a marginal seat, they experience higher levels of politician turnover before the next election and receive negative coverage in local newspapers. These findings demonstrate that political representation can cause an attitudinal backlash as fringe parties and their ideas are placed under closer scrutiny.

We examine whether exposure of men to women in a traditionally male-dominated environment can change attitudes about mixed-gender productivity, gender roles and gender identity. Our context is the military in Norway, where we randomly assigned female recruits to some squads but not others during boot camp. We find that living and working with women for 8 weeks causes men to adopt more egalitarian attitudes. There is a 14 percentage point increase in the fraction of men who think mixed-gender teams perform as well or better than same-gender teams, an 8 percentage point increase in men who think household work should be shared equally and a 14 percentage point increase in men who do not completely disavow feminine traits. Contrary to the predictions of many policymakers, we find no evidence that integrating women into squads hurt male recruits’ satisfaction with boot camp or their plans to continue in the military. These findings provide evidence that even in a highly gender-skewed environment, gender stereotypes are malleable and can be altered by integrating members of the opposite sex.

Several studies using observational data suggest that ethnic discrimination increases in downturns of the economy. We investigate whether ethnic discrimination depends on labour market tightness using data from correspondence studies. We utilize three correspondence studies of the Swedish labour market and two different measures of labour market tightness. These two measures produce qualitatively similar results, and, opposite to the observational studies, suggest that ethnic discrimination in hiring decreases in downturns of the economy.

We conduct a survey of newly hired workers in the Swedish labour market to analyse if there are differences between natives and immigrants in the choice of search intensity/methods and in the search method getting the job. We further investigate if the wage and other characteristics of the new job differ depending on the successful search method. We find that immigrants use all search methods more than natives, but they especially rely on informal search. Immigrants are more likely than natives to find a job using informal search through friends and relatives, and these jobs are associated with lower wages.

Purpose

We investigate whether there is unequal treatment in hiring depending on whether a job applicant signals living in a bad (deprived) neighborhood or in a good (affluent) neighborhood.

Design/methodology/approach

We conducted a field experiment where fictitious job applications were sent to employers with an advertised vacancy. Each job application was randomly assigned a residential address in either a bad or a good neighborhood. The measured outcome is the fraction of invitations for a job interview (the callback rate).

Findings

We find no evidence of general neighborhood signaling effects. However, job applicants with a foreign background have callback rates that are 42 percent lower if they signal living in a bad neighborhood rather than in a good neighborhood. In addition, we find that applicants with commuting times longer than 90 minutes have lower callback rates, and this is unrelated to the neighborhood signaling effect.

Originality/value

Empirical evidence of causal neighborhood effects on labor market outcomes is scant, and causal evidence on the mechanisms involved is even more scant. We provide such evidence.

The question of whether and how living in a deprived neighborhood affects the labormarket outcomes of its residents has been a subject of great interest for both policy makers andresearchers. Despite this interest, empirical evidence of causal neighborhood effects on labormarket outcomes is scant, and causal evidence on the mechanisms involved is even more scant.The mechanism that this study investigates is neighborhood signaling effects. Specifically, weask whether there is unequal treatment in hiring depending on whether a job applicant signalsliving in a bad (deprived) neighborhood or in a good (affluent) neighborhood. To this end, weconducted a field experiment where fictitious job applications were sent to employers with anadvertised vacancy. Each job application was randomly assigned a residential address in either abad or a good neighborhood. The measured outcome is the fraction of invitations for a jobinterview (the callback rate). We find no evidence of general neighborhood signaling effects.However, job applicants with a foreign background have callback rates that are 42 percent lowerif they signal living in a bad neighborhood rather than in a good neighborhood. In addition, wefind that applicants with commuting times longer than 90 minutes have lower callback rates, andthis is unrelated to the neighborhood signaling effect. Apparently, employers view informationabout residential addresses as important for employment decisions.